In this section

LITTLE WOOLTON

This township contains 1,388 acres. (fn. 1) In 1901 the
population numbered 1,091.

The greater part consists of level country under
mixed cultivation, having an open and pleasant aspect.
A smaller portion on the west lies on the slope of a
ridge, which rises to 285 ft. above sea-level. The
village of Gateacre, which lies partly in Much
Woolton, occupies the south-west side, and is nicely
situated in the midst of trees and gardens. The
roads are good, and hedged with hawthorn trimly
kept. Altogether the township wears the prosperous,
respectable look of a district removed from the smoke
and murk of the city, with its feet set on the edge of
the country. Lee is to the east of Gateacre, and
Brettargh Holt, or the Holt, to the north-east, across
the brook. The greater part of the township lies on
the pebble beds of the bunter series of the new red
sandstone; the westernmost portion and the higher
ground near the Holt are on the upper mottled sandstones of that series.

There are numerous roads and cross roads, leading
chiefly to Liverpool by Childwall, or Wavertree, or
Toxteth. Another road runs through the township,
turning round the Lee, to Halewood Green. Gateacre gives its name to a station on the Southport
branch of the Cheshire Lines Committee's railway,
which crosses the centre of the township. Netherley
lies on the eastern border, and gives a name to the
brook which bounds the township at that side, and to
the bridge on the Tarbock Road crossing this brook.

Widnes corporation have a pumping station here.

A local board was formed in 1867, (fn. 2) and the township has now an urban district council of nine
members.

In the extreme western corner of the township,
serving as mere stones, are the ancient Calderstones,
with 'ring and cup' marks. (fn. 3) In the map of Elizabeth's
time, made to illustrate the dispute as to Wavertree
and Allerton boundary, these stones are called Caldway
stones, Roger stones, or dojer stones; a Roger stone
is marked separately to the south-west of the Calder
stones. (fn. 4)

The ancient water-mill of the Hospitallers has disappeared, but a house called Peck Mill House, supposed
to have been connected with it, survived till the
beginning of last century. (fn. 5) Dam meadows and
Damcroft are names of fields near Naylor's Bridge,
where also are the Beanbridge meadows. Other
notable field names are Monk's meadow (west of Lee
Park), Causeway field, Hemp meadow, Tanhouse
meadow, Shadows, Winamoor, and Creacre. Coxhead
farm is of ancient date; an old form of the spelling is
Cocksshed.

MANORS

The history of LITTLE WOOLTON
is bound up with that of its neighbour,
Much Woolton, except for the time, about
a century, during which it was in the possession of
the monks of Stanlaw. Roger de Lacy, constable of
Chester and lord of the fee of Widnes, after granting
Little Woolton to his uncle (Brother Robert) and the
Hospitallers in the time of Richard I, (fn. 6) changed his
mind, took it from them and gave it to the abbey of
Stanlaw, founded by his father in 1178. The
charter, granted about the year 1204, states that
Roger gives the monks Little Woolton in alms as
freely as possible, quit from all earthly service and
secular exaction, for the souls of himself, his parents,
wife, and others. As a consequence, he ordered his
seneschal and bailiffs to make no claim on the men of
the place for any service or aid. (fn. 7) King John confirmed this arrangement, and in 1205 issued his
precept to the sheriff of Lancashire not to trouble the
monks of Stanlaw with respect to this manor, but to
levy all dues and services to which it had been liable
from other lands of Roger de Lacy. (fn. 8)

There were some earlier tenants within the township holding by charter of the lords of Widnes. One
of them, Gerald de Sutton, sold his land (four oxgangs)
to the monks for 11 marks, one mark to be paid to his
son Robert. John, constable of Chester, granted the
'vill' of Brettargh to William Suonis, with all easements of the vill of Little Woolton, and pannage,
rendering yearly 18d. to the Hospitallers. (fn. 9) John de
Sutton afterwards held it, and disputes which afterwards arose were settled by an agreement that Brettargh within its known bounds should be relinquished
by the monks, but that a strip of land between that
place and Woolton should be a common pasture, rights
of pannage and other easements to remain as before.
Robert son of John de Sutton gave all his land in
Hasaliswallehurst to the monks as well as 2d. rent,
which he had received for a ridge in the croft by
Woolton mill, and Hugh [de Haydock] and Christiana
his wife released all their right in the same land. (fn. 10)
Henry son of Cutus de Denton and Maud his wife,
daughter of Richard the Mason, relinquished all their
claim to the latter's land called Whitefield, held of the
abbot; and John son of Roger de Denton concurred. (fn. 11)
In 1278 Edmund son of Richard de Woolton and
John de Denton sued the abbot and Alan son of
Robert for a messuage and 15 acres of land in Little
Woolton. (fn. 12)

About 1275 the Hospitallers revived their claim to
Little Woolton, and after some negotiation the prior
promised the abbot £100 for the surrender of it.
Subsequently at Lancaster, in 1292, Peter de Haugham,
prior of the Hospitallers, sued Henry de Lacy, earl of
Lincoln, whom Gregory, abbot of Stanlaw, had called
to warrant, for a messuage, a mill, two plough-lands,
and 100 acres of pasture there, and the earl acknowledged the prior's right. Thus, 'by the consent, or it
may more truly be said by the compulsion,' of the
earl, the manor passed from the monks to the
Hospitallers, and remained with the latter till 1540. (fn. 13)
The manor has since descended in the same way as
Much Woolton to the marquis of Salisbury.

The priors of St. John were involved in several
suits. In 1306 William son of Henry de Huyton
was charged with cutting trees within Woolton, and
the prior charged Henry de Huyton with entering
his wood by force of arms and cutting and carrying
off trees. (fn. 14) A curious case arose out of the forfeiture
of Sir Robert de Holand in 1322. It appeared
on inquiry that the Hospitallers held the manor of
Alice de Lacy, daughter and heir of the earl of
Lincoln, in pure and perpetual alms without rendering any other service; its yearly value was 23 marks.
William de Tothale, formerly prior, with the consent
of the chapter, had demised the manor to one Roger
de Fulshaw for life, at a rent of 20 marks. The
tenant transferred his right to Robert de Holand, and
gave his charter back to the prior, who, without consulting the chapter or troubling to make out a new
charter, passed it to Robert de Holand in the name
of seisin. Roger died in 1317, when, of course, the
charter ceased to have effect, but Robert continued to
hold the manor during the lifetime of William de
Tothale, who died in 1318, his successor, Richard
Paveley, and the then prior (Thomas L'Archer),
without any further grant or sanction of the chapter. (fn. 15)
It does not appear that this revelation made any
difference; the manor was in the king's hands, and in
the next reign was restored to Maud de Holand,
widow of Sir Robert; and in 1330 the prior took
action against her in regard to it. (fn. 16)

In 1324 Roger son of John le Walker, of Tarbock,
and Avice his wife secured by fine three messuages,
80 acres of land, and 12 acres of meadow, which in
default of heirs of Avice were to remain to William de
Huyton and his heirs. The story is not clear, (fn. 17) but
the disputes are of interest as introducing the Brettarghs
of Brettargh Holt. William de Stockleigh, in 1355,
surrendered to Avice de Brettargh—apparently the
daughter of Avice, who was the wife of Roger le
Walker—his life interest in a third part of the manor
of Huyton, and in 1358 an agreement as to a third
part of this manor was made between William de
Walton and Avice and William de Brettargh, the
latter renouncing their title in favour of Walton. (fn. 18)

From 1358 onwards several persons bearing the
name of William de Brettargh occur as witnesses to
charters and in other ways. (fn. 19) In 1398–9 William de
Brettargh the elder and William de Brettargh the
younger claimed from Alan le Norreys and Alice his
wife a messuage and 120 acres in Little Woolton, in
which the latter acknowledged the claimants' right,
receiving 20 marks. The land was to descend to the
heirs of William Brettargh the younger. (fn. 20)

In 1502 William Brettargh was one of the justices
of the quorum, and in 1514 a commissioner of the
subsidy. (fn. 21) The earliest Brettargh inquisition is that of
William Brettargh, who died in 1527; he had a
cottage, a dovecote, and 100 acres of land in Little
Woolton, held of the prior of St. John by fealty and
a rent of 18d., the value
being £5; his son and heir
William was eleven years of
age. (fn. 22) This son died in 1585,
having acquired by his marriage
with Anne, a daughter and
coheir of John Toxteth, an
estate in Aigburth. At his
death he held a capital messuage called the Holt, a dovecote, a water-mill, &c., in Much
and Little Woolton of the
queen (as of the dissolved
priory) by a rent of 18d. and
other land by a rent of 1d.;
a windmill in Little Woolton held of Sir William
Norris of Speke; also the capital messuage called
Aigburth and other lands there and in Garston, by
reason of the dissolution of the hospital of St. John
outside the Northgate of Chester. (fn. 23) His grandson
William, son of William, was the heir, and aged
fourteen years. (fn. 24)

Brettargh of Brettargh Holt. Argent, a fret gules; on a chief or a lion passant of the second.

The grandson married Katherine, sister of John
Bruen of Stapleford, a famous Puritan. (fn. 25) There was
only one child, Anne, of this marriage. (fn. 26) William
Brettargh married secondly Anne, daughter of William
Hyde of Urmston, (fn. 27) by whom he had a son Nehemiah,
who took part in the defence of Lathom House with
the rank of lieutenant. Nehemiah had paid £10 in
1631 as composition on refusing knighthood. (fn. 28)

Another local family was that of Orme, of numerous
branches; in the reign of Elizabeth there were Ormes
at the Lee, in the Portway, and at Wheathill, in
Little Woolton. There was a succession of Thomas
Ormes at the Lee; (fn. 29) one died in March, 1622–3,
leaving as heir his granddaughter Jane, daughter of
his son Thomas, whose wardship was undertaken by
Sir William Norris of Speke. She married Edward
Fairhurst of Liverpool. (fn. 30)

The Little Woolton court rolls of the middle
of the sixteenth century have many interesting
features. (fn. 31) The officers appointed were the constables, burleymen, hill bailiffs, (fn. 32) lay layers, affeerers,
bailiff of the vill, and ale fonders; surveyors
of the highway also occur. The 'cross in the
Oak lane' is mentioned; there were two stone
bridges—Astowe bridge and Benet bridge—and it was
forbidden to rete hemp or flax at either of them, or to
wash clothes or yarn at the former. Breaches of
manorial customs were duly brought before the court
for punishment—such as obstructing or diverting the
water-courses, fishing in other men's waters, and disregarding the orders of the officers of the manor.
The morals of the people were also cared for. (fn. 33) In
1559 it was ordered that no tenant, free or copyhold,
should suffer any crow, commonly called 'ruckes or
Whytebyll croeys,' to eyre or breed within his tenement. Hugh Whitfield of Gateacre had broken
the pinfold and taken a lamb seized in distraint;
perhaps, as a result of this, it was ordered that 'an
able pinfold' be made on the green. Transfers of
land made by sale or on the death of a tenant were,
of course, important parts of the business of the
court. Cases of assault and trespass, and also of debt,
came up for trial and sentence. Hospitallers' privileges were guarded by an order that every tenant
should have a cross set upon his house as was accustomed. At the same court the 'reeves of our Lady's
stock at Huyton' were summoned for a debt.

In 1785 the land was owned by a large number of
persons, as shown by the land-tax returns; the principal were James Okill for Lee, who paid about a
fifth of the tax; James Brettargh for the Holt, and
William Barrow.

In connexion with the Established Church, St.
Stephen's was built in 1873 as a chapel of ease to
Childwall, and made a separate ecclesiastical parish in
1893. The bishop of Liverpool is patron.

Footnotes

3. Baines's Dir. of 1825 (ii, 698)
thus describes them: 'Close by the farm
on which the famous Allerton oak stands,
and just at the point where four ways
meet, are a quantity of remains called
Calder stones… . From the circumstance that in digging about them urns
made of the coarsest clay [and] containing
human dust and bones have been discovered, there is reason to believe that
they indicate an ancient burying place
… . Some of the urns were dug up
about sixty years ago, and were in the
possession of Mr. Mercer of Allerton.'

4. For the Calder stones see V.C.H.
Lancs. i, 240, also a pamphlet by Professor
Herdman, and Duchy of Lanc. Maps, n. 73.

5. Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xii,
71–4. The house so marked in the
Ordnance Map is some distance from the
brooks.

15. Inq. a.q.d. 17 Edw. II, n. 121.
The accounts of the royal receiver for
the forfeited estate of Robert de Holand
show this manor of Woolton to have been
farmed out to the prior of Upholland for
£23 a year. The prior requested a
written document; Ancient Petitions,
52/2587. In 1323–4 there was further
received from sales £14 8s. 6d., made up
of £13 for the crop of wheat (6 acres),
beans and peas (1½ acre), and oats (3
acres); 10s. for oxen, 6d. for skins of two
rams and a sheep dead of the plague, and
18s. for the timber of an old sheepcote
blown down by the wind; the expenses
were 8s. 6d. for wages for three weeks
before the premises were let to farm. The
stock consisted of 3 plough horses, 9 oxen,
5 cows, 2 heifers, 4 young oxen (2 sold),
2 calves, 2 rams (died of the plague), 194
sheep (one died of plague), 141 ewes, 70
hogs, and a goat; also a wagon, two
ploughs, a harrow, &c.; L.T.R. Enrolled
Accts. Misc. n. 14, m. 77.

22. Duchy of Lanc. Inq. p.m. viii, n. 36.
The service agrees with that in the ancient charter to William Suonis quoted
above. William's wife Eleanor survived
him. She was a daughter of William
Lathom of Allerton and so related to the
Norris and Harrington families; Pal. of
Lanc. Sessional P. Hen. VIII, bdle. 2.

24. In 1591 an action was brought
against William Brettargh and Maud his
mother by inhabitants of Woolton respecting various customs and privileges;
Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), iii, 259.

25. In her short married life she lived at
Woolton, as her funeral panegyric states,
'among inhuman bands of brutish Papists,
enduring many temporal grievances from
them; yet her knowledge, patience, mild
inclination and constancy for the truth
was such as that her husband was further
builded up in religion by her means, and
his face daily more and more hardened
against the Devil and all his plaguey
agents, the Popish recusants, Church
Papists, profane atheists, and carnal Protestants, which swarmed together like
hornets in those parts.' It was, however,
her dread that her husband would renounce Protestantism. See Lancs. Funeral
Cert. (Chet. Soc.), i, 37–40; and her life
in S. Clark's Marrow of Eccles. Hist.
One outrage their neighbours perpetrated upon their cattle is recorded in the
State Papers, the Norris family being
implicated. The bishop of Chester and
his associates conclude their report thus:
'We commend our proceedings herein,
as also the poor gentleman so greatly injured by these barbarous facts, and in
them the common cause of religion and
of justice, to your favour, from which
only we may expect reformation of these
great outrages of late committed by
Catholics, not without the designments of
pestilential seminaries that lurk amongst
them'; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1598–1601,
482–5.
In the declaration of 'Grenloe, a priest,'
about 1599, occurs the following: 'What
I lay down cannot be proved, unless we
had as free liberty, law and favour as our
adversaries have against us, viz. that
Mr. William Brettargh or his disciples
have said that if her majesty should grant
any toleration to the papists, she was
not worthy to be queen, and before that
should be they would "give bobs" or "bobs
should be given"; which speech of toleration was then greatly in use. Also that
the earl of Essex was the worthiest to be,
and that as the papists look for a change,
there would be a change by Michaelmas
day, as near as it was, but little to their
good;' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1580–1625, p. 400.

26. From her descended Anne Gerard,
wife of Edward Norris, M.D. of Speke.

28. Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.),
169–70; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and
Ches.), i, 213. He and his sons James,
John, and Edward are on the Preston
Guild Roll of 1642 (Rec. Soc. Lancs. and
Ches.), 147.
Nehemiah is described as an 'honest
good fellow' by William Blundell of
Little Crosby, but was most of his life a
heavy drinker; going 'merry to bed' one
night he was found dead next morning;
Trans. Hist. Soc. xxxvi, 37.
His son and heir James, according to
the same authority, was 'adorned in the
days of the usurpation with the virtues
then in fashion; he was a singular zealot
and a very sufficient preacher'; but after
the Restoration the 'mask fell off,' and
he ruined his health by excessive drinking. Riding home after a bout at Warrington he fell from his horse, sustaining
injuries from which he died a little later;
ibid. He recorded a pedigree in 1664;
Dugdale, Visit. (Chet. Soc.), 57. His will
was proved in 1666. The will of his
widow, Deborah Chandler, was dated and
proved in 1686; she desired to be buried
in the chancel of Childwall church next
the body of her late husband, James
Brettargh. There are mentioned her
daughters Hitchmough, Hanna, Phoebe
Potter; her grandchildren, Thomas Brettargh, Edward and Phoebe Richardson,
and Deborah, wife of Mordecai Cocker of
Cockshead.
James's son Jonathan, born in 1656,
was educated at Huyton school, to which
he presented a book; Local Gleanings
Lancs. and Ches. ii, 115. He died at the
beginning of 1685; Childwall Registers.
His will is at Chester, dated 6 February,
1684–5, and proved 23 May, 1685. The
testator desired to be buried in the family
burial place at Childwall; no children
are named, and the executors were his
wife Anne and his brother-in-law Henry
Orme; a deed of 1681 as to the settlement of his estates is mentioned.
Jonathan was followed by his son
James, educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; Pal. Note Bk. iii, 268, and information of Dr. Morgan, master of the
College. He married Anne, daughter and
coheir of John Hurst of Scholes near
Prescot; Lancs. and Ches. Antiq. Notes,
ii, 17; the licence was granted 23 July,
1695, the marriage to take place at
Newton. This seems to have interfered
with the husband's academical career, as
he did not graduate. Anne Brettargh,
his widow, a professor of the ancient
faith, was living at Prescot in 1750;
Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 362, from
23rd roll of Geo. II at Preston, where her
sister, the other coheir, is described as
Catherine Cobham, widow. From the
same document it appears that James
Brettargh was living in 1741. The will
of Anne Brettargh, widow of James
Brettargh, esq. of Brettargh Holt, made
in 1758, with a codicil of 1762, was proved
in 1763, and again at Chester in 1788,
after the death of James Brettargh the
elder, her son. The other children mentioned are John Brettargh and Elizabeth
Wagstaffe, widow; they were living in
1788, when James Brettargh the younger,
'of Pendleton, Schoolmaster,' was described
as Anne's grandson and heir; Peter
Brettargh and Catherine Royle of Salford
are also mentioned. See also Baines'
Lancs. (ed. 1836), iii, 744.
James Brettargh was in 1702 recommended for appointment as a justice of
the peace, but it was objected that he was
'in debt and young'; Norris Papers (Chet.
Soc.), pp. 111, 164. He is described as
'of Aigburth,' but was then offering the
estate for sale. He died between 1741
and 1765, his son and heir being James
Brettargh, who was the last of the family
to dwell at the Holt, and was buried at
Childwall 28 January, 1786, aged eighty-five. The will of James Brettargh of
Brettargh Holt, gentleman, dated 23
January, 1786, and proved in 1789, mentions only his 'daughter Holt,' the wife of
Robert Clelland of Wavertree; the value
of the estate was between £100 and £300.
Members of the family settled in
Liverpool, Manchester, and elsewhere;
and one of them, also a William Brettargh, an attorney's apprentice in Manchester, joined the Young Pretender in
1745, becoming an ensign in the Manchester Regiment; he was captured at
Carlisle, condemned for treason and transported in 1749; Pal. Note Book, ii, 118.
'Mr. Brettargh' and his son Tom (of
Manchester) were friends of John Byrom's
about 1724–8; Remains (Chet. Soc.), i, 97,
295.
Richard Brettargh, steward of Henry
Blundell of Ince, caused the births of his
children to be recorded in the Sefton
registers—they were not baptized at the
church. One of his sons was Jonathan
Brettargh, 'the devil's darning-needle,'
steward at Trafford House; another,
Richard, was one of the victims of the
French Revolution; being then at Douai
he was imprisoned and died of fever
24 June, 1794; Lancs. and Ches. Antiq.
Notes, 13; Stretford (Chet. Soc.), ii, 156;
Gillow, Haydock Papers, 141, 159;
Gillow, Bibl. Dict. of Eng. Catholics, i,
290.

29. In 1582 it was found by the jury of
the manor court that Thomas Orme, or
Ormeson, had died seised of a messuage
called the Lee, and 19 acres of free land,
held by rent and service of two barbed
arrows; also of customary land for which
he paid at the rate of 12d. per acre.
Thomas Orme was his son and heir, and
of full age.

33. Alice, widow of George Orme, was a
'common chider' of the neighbours, and
must leave the township. Margaret
Hastie kept Anne Dosen in her house,
'being a priest's woman,' and must send
her away under penalty of 3s. 4d. Thomas
Orme had kept unlawful 'gamoning' in his
house; another had 'bulling and a bulling alley.' Peter Skillington as a resetter of 'vagabonds and valiant beggars,'
was fined 6d.